volvo v40 2003 1.9D wont rev low power
 

Well a sad day I have killed my trusty V40 2003 1.9D with 184k on the clock

It was running great until I made a bad decision to tow an XC90 along the motorway with it, not a great idea I know but had very little choice.

Anyway after about 10 minutes I started losing power and we limped into a service station, ditched the XC90 and continued back to base in the V40 at low speed.

Symptoms are it just wont rev up and is completely gutless. Checked the turbo and the shaft seemed a little stiff so installed a new cartridge.

Primed the turbo with plenty of oil before connecting the feed pipe and started her up, just the same albeit with a significant oil leak from the other end of the oil feed pipe, now fixed.

I have another V40 1.9D so swapped over the MAF, MAP and turbo control valve, no change. I can see the VNT arm on the side of the turbo pulling up on start up which it does on both cars.

If I disconnect the turbo inlet pipe I can see the turbo spinning freely at idle.

I suspected the EGR valve so disconnected the pipe under the inlet manifold and wedged a piece of cardboard in there. This seemed to transform the car albeit with a massive exhaust leak. So I made up a small metal disc to block off the EGR and pushed it back together. This made the car the same as before so it looks like the exhaust is blocked ....

Suspected a blocked CAT so disconnected the CAT from the outlet of the turbo no change ???

This would imply that the exhaust gasses are getting blocked in the turbo somehow

When I had the turbo apart the VNT vanes were moving nice and freely so I didn't dismantle them, upon reassembly I could feel the mech all went back together OK, and with the engine running and the exhaust disconnected if I pull the vac pipe off the actuator I can hear the engine note change as the vanes move from fully closed to fully open.

Bit mystified as I cant really see what could block the exhaust gases in the turbo apart from those vanes

Think I need to go back again and just confirm the noticeable improvement with that EGR pipe disconnected and the inlet blacked but exhaust open. Maybe also check teh turbo is spooling up OK when you try and rev it though it doesn't want to rev past 2000 any way

Really hope that leaking oil feed pipe on initial startup hasn't wrecked my new cartridge, there is some play in the shaft now but it is not rubbing on the sides or making a noise.

Any thoughts ??

Will also get VIDA back on it again after swapping all those bits over

fixed
 

Realise I posted this on a US forum by mistake no diesels

Anyway just to close this out as it might help someone else in the future

Turbo was damaged towing XC90 as car overloaded, slight leak on oil feed pipe would not have helped either

Once Turbo stopped spinning car started over fuelling and filled CAT with soot and blocked the exhaust

New turbo couldn't spin up due to blocked exhaust

Put some turbo cleaner in the tank and took for a very slow test drive found a deserted lay by and tried revving it up as much as I could it started freeing up a little until eventually I got a big cloud of black smoke out the back and she cleared herself out

Now runs perfect again phew